


The Mystery of the Alexandrite Family

by frostedroyaltea



Series: Buzzfeed Unsolved: Mysterious Set in Fictional Verses [3]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Daredevil (TV), Original Work
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Crimes & Criminals, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Not Beta Read, Organized Crime, Original Character(s), Post-Season/Series 01, Pre-Season/Series 02, Pre-Season/Series 03, Russian Mafia, Screenplay/Script Format, pre The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:11:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26160157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frostedroyaltea/pseuds/frostedroyaltea
Summary: “Now this one is a bit strange, because of who survived, and what he may have done following it.”
Series: Buzzfeed Unsolved: Mysterious Set in Fictional Verses [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1887172
Kudos: 12





	The Mystery of the Alexandrite Family

Ryan: This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved we will be discussing the mystery of the Alexandrite family. Now this one is different from others we’ve done-”

Shane: Why?

Ryan: You’ve got to let me tell you. Now this one is a bit strange, because of who survived, and what he may have done following it.

Shane: Well let’s hear it. 

Ryan: So I don’t have the exact date since they were hard to find and most of these articles have been translated from Russian-

Shane: Ooh. Is this going to be like the one about the Romanov family?

Ryan: No. _Weell_. No. So this happened in a rather wealthy village in Russia, Река Слез (Reka Slez). In about the late 90s. One night people broke into the Alexandrite’s family home. The neighbours called for help after hearing gunshots. Vera and Edmon Alexandrite were found dead in the living room, each from multiple gunshot wounds. Their son, Ivan, was found unconscious and injured on the edge of the woods the family had on their property. 

Shane: They must’ve been rich. Just having a forest on the property.

Ryan: Yeah.

Ryan clears his throat.

Ryan: Later, an investigation revealed large amounts of money were missing from security vaults kept in the home offices.

Shane: Offices? Plural? What’d they do for a living? 

Ryan: That actually has to do with one of the theories. Along with the money whoever killed them also took with them - 

The video cuts to Ryan reading off a list

“- different ornaments, like decorations. Other things that were stolen include jewelry, just jewels and gems in general - 

Shane holds a hand up. “Hold up, they just had gems laying around?”

Ryan shrugs. “I guess? None of the reports specified where they were in the house just that they were stolen.”

“And they didn’t have any weapons or a dog at least? No security system? What did they expect to happen?”

“I don’t know. No weapons were found in the house besides kitchen knives. They could have been hidden though. There were other things stolen though-

“What? What else would they have?”

“Paintings,” Ryan says and Shane shakes his head a bit at him. “The missing paintings were never identified though, so the family probably never bought any, just painted them themselves or got them from friends or family.”

“How did they know the family didn’t buy the paintings?

“They scanned the other paintings for those ID chips and didn’t find any. I’m guessing they assumed the others weren’t bought as well.”

“So is this about the paintings?”

Ryan half-laughs. “No. Not quite. It does tie into one of the theories though.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Ryan looks directly at the camera. “Now, back to Ivan…”

The screen goes back to black, showing pictures of a different family and a timeline.

Ryan: Extended family took Ivan in. His mother's cousins, the Bauxite’s. For three years he was under their care until - and wait until you hear this - they left Russia. 

Shane: Did they take Ivan with them?  
  


Ryan: No, and that’s the thing, he was left with no way of ever finding or contacting them again.

Shane: How old was he?

Ryan: Thirteen, I believe. 

Shane: Jesus. Is he still alive?

Ryan: Yeah.

Shane: He know we’re doing this?

Ryan: Yeah. I asked him to make sure it’s okay. He said I probably wouldn’t find anything but he didn’t care.

Shane: You know him?  
  


Ryan: No. He has social media, Shane. Anyway his entire extended family just up and leaves when he’s thirteen. No one really knows where they are though, or why they left.

Shane: Was it investigated?  
  


Ryan: Yeah. There were no signs of struggle or forced entry in their house. It was just all of a sudden. Or any of the houses.

Shane: Poor kid… That’s horrible.

Ryan: No kidding.

Shane: Everyone left?  
  


Ryan: Everyone who was directly related to his parents. So his aunts, uncles, cousins.

Shane: Grandparents?  
  


Ryan: I think they might have already been dead when this was happening. I can’t imagine anyone letting that happen to their family and if they were the oldest… Any the next two years are a bit unclear, I think he was mostly staying in orphanages then.

Shane: Wait- so did the people who killed his parents… did they have to do with the rest of the family’s disappearance?

Ryan: Maybe. We’ll get to that. They do think that the Russian mob killed Vena and Edmon though. Ivan wasn’t able to identify anyone but he said he’s positive the mob had something to do with it. This will also be relevant later.

Shane: Isn’t it solved then?

Ryan: No. When he was fifteen he was taken in by a family in America. Everything was kind of quiet up until two years later when he would have been 17.

Shane: So is the mystery about this Ivan guy?

Ryan: Kind of. His parents too. You’ll see why.

Shane: What happened when he was 17? Also, what happened to all his parents' money and the rest of their stuff? Wouldn’t it have been given to him at that point?

Ryan: About the money, that’s actually part of one of the theories so I’ll get to that later. And about what was happening when he was 17… Some people following the case saw that he had gotten a tattoo. It’s a circle with a dot in the middle of it, it’s known as “The Roundstone.” It indicates the person is an orphan and it also is known to mean “Trust only yourself.”

Shane: Rough. But it’s really just a tattoo.

Ryan: Not _any_ tattoo Shane. It is a common tattoo among vory v zakone, or, as they are better known, the Russian mob.

Shane. Wait. _What_?

The video shows them both at the table.

“Yeah,” Ryan says. “Isn’t it crazy?”

“So this guy says he thinks the Russian mob killed his family, and then he goes and joins them?”

“Maybe. Maybe he just likes the irony of it.”

“That’s…”  
  


“I know. It gets weirder.”

“Of course it does.”

The screen goes to black and two pictures come on screen. One is labelled ‘Anatoly’ and the other is labelled ‘Vladimir.’

Ryan: Around the same time and after he was seen interacting with Anatoly Ranskahov and Vladimir Ranskahov, two very well known members of the Russian mob.

Shane: Couldn’t they have to do with his parents' murders though? Why would he be talking to _them_?”

Ryan: They couldn’t have killed his parents. When the Alexandrite’s were killed the Ranskahov’s would have been in jail, both on a three year sentence that they did, surprisingly, complete.

Shane: Why is it surprising?

Ryan: Because they later escaped a different prison in 2007 after only having been there for a few years and they still had quite a lot of time left on their sentences. 

Shane: Strange. 

Ryan: Yeah it is. Anyway, he was seen with known and suspected members a few times. At one point he was also seen with Oliver Queen, and not looking at all happy about it. 

Shane: Does Oliver Queen have something to do with this?  
  
Ryan: It’s not likely, there isn’t enough evidence to prove that he does.

Shane: Where are you going with this?

Ryan: I’m getting there. About five years later he was seen leaving a mechanic where he supposedly worked at the time. Someone saw that he had a new tattoo, one that looked fresh.

Shane: _Fresh_? How does a tattoo look fresh?

Ryan: I don’t know. That’s what they said. Anyway, it’s of a cat wearing a hat-”

The video shows Shane laughing. “The cat in the hat?”

“No!” Ryan laughs too. “No. More like Puss in Boots.”

“Oh. So like Shrek.”

“Aah… Not quite. The cat that uses trickery and deceit to gain wealth and power. So. Not as cute as the ‘Puss’ from Shrek. It’s supposedly a traditional sign of the thieves, or vory.”

“So ‘vory’ is ‘thieves’ in Russian?”

“Yes.”  
  
“What’s ‘thief’ then?”

“…”

“What is it, Ryan?”

“I don’t want this to get demonetized. V-O-R. Figure it out yourself.”

“Oh. So this puss in boots is a Russian thief tattoo?”

“Supposedly.”

“You didn’t ask Ivan to confirm their meanings or if he even has them at all? Are there any pictures of these supposed tattoos?”

“I actually did ask. He does have the Roundstone one.”

“Well did he confirm its meaning?”  
  


“Yes.”

“What about the cat in the hat?”

“No. He just said,” Ryan slides his phone across the table to show Shane, “and I quote, ‘LOL. Nope.’ and didn’t say anything else. Anyway, at the time he was leaving the mechanic he would have been about 22 years old.”

“So there are these random people creeping him on the internet?”

“I guess. Now on to the theories!”

The screen cuts to black. The words ‘Theory One’ come up on screen. 

Shane: If you say this ten-year-old kid somehow orchestrated his parents murder-

Ryan: No! No. The first theory comes from Ivan himself and what the authorities suspect. He said he would use to hear his parents talk, talk about people who threatened them and what to do about it. He thinks the mafia was interested in his parents' money and they were threatening his parents into handing it over. 

This is probably the most likely one considering how wealthy his parents were and neither of them had an extensive criminal record.

Shane: So the money… How would they have gotten it? What did they do for work?

Ryan: Right! Theory two then. Some people think at one point his parents were involved with, or part of, the mafia and that’s how they ended up so wealthy. They kept a lot of locked up documents in the offices. Some of them were even coded. Some people also think the stolen paintings might have had codes hidden in them and that’s why the mob chose to take those paintings instead of the others. It would also explain why they were killed- easiest way to shut someone up.

Shane: What about Ivan? Wouldn’t the ones he was with try to kill him?

Ryan: Not exactly. The Rusian mob’s hierarchy isn’t very well documented and it’s more… fluid, I guess, then other mafias are. The two groups might not even know each other.

Shane: So the Alexandrite’s were involved with the mob?  
  
Ryan: It’s possible. They’re dead so we can’t ask them, Ivan was too young to know which is why he might be alive, and no one would want to come forward with information since it would likely end with them in prison. Also, this case is still technically under investigation, it’s why Ivan can’t get any of his parents fortune. If it’s dirty blood money then the authorities would need to know that before handing it over to Ivan.

Shane: That’d be tough. Going through all that… So is Ivan part of the mob then?  
  
Ryan: I don’t know.

Shane: What about the will? Wouldn’t they have one? Especially since the mob was threatening them. And why wouldn’t they go to the police or invest in some sort of alarm system or security?

Ryan: That’s why people think they were once in the mob. And it wouldn’t be safe to raise a kid into a mob- which might be why they left.  
  
The video shows both of them still at the table. Ryan is looking at Shane. “What do you think Shane?”  
  


“I think the mob was definitely involved in some way. Were those the only theories?”

“Yeah. It was hard to get my hands on anything else since it’s still an ongoing investigation.”

“Did they ask Ivan anything?”

“He didn’t really remember anything. A night like that would be traumatic to anyone, especially a little kid.”

“How old is he now?”

“About 25 I think.”

The screen shows pictures of the Alexandrite house and the surrounding houses.

Ryan: What happened that fateful night would turn into a lifetime of mystery and wondering. Anyone who truly knows what happened is now dead or won’t be coming forward. For now, this case is Unsolved.

The word ‘Unsolved’ in red bold letters appears on screen and fades away as the video shows Shane and Ryan.

“The mob definitely did it,” Shane says.

“Oh yeah.”

“Think they’ll ever find out who did it?”

“Probably. Who knows, maybe we’ll be coming back to this.” 

“Maybe we will.”

**Author's Note:**

> I plan on doing the Post Mortem Q&A for this so if anyone has any questions they'd like to ask feel free to do so in the comments. if you don't want me to use your username just put that in the comment too.


End file.
